High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois | #10 - The Thorns (Part 2)

Episode Date: September 27, 2018

Two have been murdered in the quiet town of Rosehall. The party immediately make preparations to catch the culprit! Huge thanks to our sponsors D&D Beyond and Brilliant. D&D Beyond is the official digital toolset for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. Use the code HIGHROLLING on D&D Beyond (http://bit.ly/dndbeyondhighrollers) to get 25% off all digital items (excluding the Legendary Bundle)! Brilliant.org helps you master concepts through fun, guided problem solving. D&D has a rich history of puzzles and problems, so boost your brain power with Brilliant! The first 200 users to follow our link (http://bit.ly/highrollersarebrilliant) will get 20% off an annual subscription! Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pickaxe. Rogers. TD and your small business go together like... TD's small business account managers have in-depth business banking expertise, so they can give you the advice and resources you need to make your day-to-day easier. So if you're ready to meet your small business match, we're ready for you. Visit td.com slash smallbusinessmatch to book an appointment with one of our advisors. Hello and welcome to High Rollers, a Dungeons & Dragons podcast in the world of Arois. Run by Dungeon Master Mark Sharkhumes, with me, Tom, playing Kilakad Kalar, the bard slash cleric. I am Chris Trott, I'm playing Lucius Vue and Elowen Elinastro. And I am a High Elf Sorcerer.

Hi, I'm Rhiannon. I'm playing Sentry. I am a Guardian Paladin. And I'm Kim. I'm playing Nova, who is an Air Ganassi, and she is a Hexblade Warlock. Once again, a big thank you to our sponsors, D&D Beyond and Brilliant.org.

Stick around for the end to hear more about those. There's been a murder in Rosehall. Who are the victims, and how are we going to find the culprit? Hello. Welcome back to High Rollers D&D. Fuck you, Mark. I've put my evil cardigan on because it's cold. And I'm evil.

Welcome back. If you're just joining us, man, you should go back and watch the first half on the Twitch VOD. No. Because things have escalated. The party return to the Brazen Heart after their dinner with Brett Brookstone and his family is ended with the field marshal, Merrick, turning up to tell them that they needed to return to the tavern

because something had happened. When they return, the crowd parts to reveal blood splattered all across the straw floor of the barn and two bodies against the hay bales. Don't say it again, that makes it canon! You all can see you're all still on the edge.

Merrick has just stood behind you and you can see several of the harvest guards are asking questions of the local townsfolk. I mean, what do people do? Podcast listeners, Rhiannon has a look of complete shock and despair and mild hatred for the DM. She's suddenly

realised that High Rollers is not the happy affair that it has been for the last seven weeks. It's a trap. Welcome to High Rollers, Rhiannon. I think who's doing what? Lucien can instinctively look away. There's a lot of blood. Yeah, and just like, oh.

It's awful. I mean, I would like to identify... The bodies? The bodies. From afar. So from afar. So centering core, you're like trying to look and see who it is. Nova, what are you doing?

I think she'd kind of go into her own version of shock and be like, scientifically speaking, that amount of blood. So you're like doing the calculations. But like just talking endlessly, like she's shocked and really scared, but like just endlessly talking. Lucius and Novi, you're just too stunned by the scene. You're looking away.

Sentry and Quill, when you look over, you can see that both bodies are wearing Siascan priest robes One is a woman with dark skin and a head wrap And the other is a young man It is Yusuf and Corrin They are huddled together It looks like in their final moments they were holding onto each other There is a trail of blood

Which looks like Yusuf crawled over to Corrin's body and died next to him. There is the wounds that you can see. This is a brief glance. Tears out of their flesh. You can see their robes are all torn up.

You need to get closer to get more information. I would immediately turn away and walk away from the scene and just immediately try and find Valor. Okay, so you're going to look around for Valor? Yeah. Okay, so you begin running around. Are you asking or are you just looking?

I mean, I know that she would have been in the Brazen Heart. I want to basically find her before she comes to the place and finds myself. Unless she's gone missing. You go looking for that. Are you fucking with Quill? Quill, Quill, Quill, what is it? I'm not saying anything. Quill?

Quill runs off. Moving. What's everyone else doing? Okay, of course not. I think I'm just going to stay behind. I'm going to be so riled up. I'm going to be so angry. You two? are you still doing

in shock are you still both kind of did you see no did you see no but Quill's run off

the sentry's going crazy I hate to say it but in the barn it was Yusuf and Corrin no yes no please I'm going to push through

yeah you push through and you step in and you can see some of the guards trying to stop Lucius because obviously you're like kicking all the straw and stuff away but yeah as you, you push through, and you step in, and you can see some of the guards trying to stop Lucius, because obviously you're, like, kicking all the straw and stuff away. But yeah, as you kind of push through, you can see these two bodies,

like I said, they look like Yusuf Kral. Do we have a healer? Anybody? One of the harvest guards, and you can see it's the dwarven woman, Windy Gale, she kind of just puts her hands... There's something that could be done, surely? We already tried, son. They're long gone. They died hours ago. Hours?

Perhaps about, we we think maybe an hour or so ago they bled out what on earth happened so as you ask that question quill you run around you spend minutes looking for valor there is no sign of her in the not in the brazen heart not in the brazen heart you begin learning the brazen heart. You begin learning outside. As you are looking outside, you hear one of the harvest guards asking a local, who just is like, I saw something. He was a big fella. Must have been over seven feet tall.

He was carrying that girl towards the south gate, the one that came in with them strange folk. I'll go straight to him and say, What did the girl look like? The one that came with you, dark hair, young, 14, teenager. Okay, and then I'll go back through and find these three. Yeah, they're still there. So when you look at it, when the girl turns to you, it's like,

we, from what we've learned, there was an individual, a tall figure, muscular, wielding some sort of large chain. A few folks saw him leaving. Nobody saw the attack itself, but Rosalina heard some commotion. And when she came out, the two had already bled out. They saw this fella carrying away the younger girl, the teenager that came with you. Bella. We saw them heading towards the southern gate.

We've sent men to look, but it's like he just vanished. He just stepped into the shadows and disappeared. We know that some of the guards who were closer at the northern gate, there was reports of a dire wolf in the iron wield. They went out to try and deal with that, but they couldn't find it. And when they came back, this had all had all happened so americ looks to you americ kind of turns to you all is like i'm really sorry um we're obviously going to spend every everything we can to find out what happened and i've already dispatched scouts to try and track down whoever's responsible

but there's not many of us it It's too late. They're dead. We failed them. We failed them. Century, they're dead. I know. It looked like they... There's defensive wounds. We've seen some evidence of spells being cast. We think that there was definitely... They put up a fight of some kind,

but I'm afraid that by the time anybody... Rosalina was the first one here and she said it was already too late. We did so much for them. We should have been here for them. I should have been here for them. There was nothing that any of you could have done. This came, this seven foot tall man with the chain,

nobody's seen him before, nobody knows anything about him. We suspect he could be some sort of, um, maybe an assassin or something like that. But he just came into town. There was nothing you could have, there was no way you would have known. But we didn't check in on them.

We just went around doing our own thing. The only thing I need to ask is the wild elf that came with you, there's a lot of people, well, she's not being seen all day. Ayla? She left. She left this morning. She left a note on my pillow. And a lot of people, this has happened the day that she left.

She wouldn't do this! I'm not saying she did, but there's a lot of people that are leaning back on old hatreds. Then please downplay the rumors. I am trying my best. Because she was protecting them as much as we were. Yeah. If she's a kind soul, she doesn't need this. All I can say is I'm just giving you

warning. Doesn't need fuel for the fire. I know. I know. Like I've mentioned, we think that well, this figure was last seen heading towards the southern gate, but when he stepped into shadow he seemed to disappear, vanish.

We've lost tracks. I'm not sure what's the next steps. My harvest, I have about eight harvest guard here in the town and I'm not including myself. I've dispatched as many of them as I can to scout out, but I have to keep

most of them here just in case anything happens to the town, but anything I can to scout out, but I have to keep most of them here just in case anything happens to the town. But anything I can do, I'm happy to help. I'm going to assume that we're all in agreement that this is now personal and that we must find... Very much so. Valor. I guess I'm... Yeah, so you kind of come in at the trail end of that conversation.

OK. I guess we don't need a vote. He's on this one. There's no vote. We need to find a vote. No question. Okay. Of course. You're more than welcome to look around the scene.

I'll make sure the Harvest Guards know that you're investigating this. Given that you survived Dwallin Den, I'm in no doubt about your skills. But yes,

if you need to speak to people of the town, please make sure myself or one of the Harvest Guard are present. You aren't deputized individuals. I can't have you just going around

questioning people, but I'm happy to provide you a guard to lend authority to it. I assume you don't want the culprit removed from the equation. You'd want him brought in for questioning? For justice. Questioning. We've got eyewitness reports of him leaving the scene

with the girl. Given the blood, the weapon he was wielding, I am under no doubts that he was responsible, but... And what is your justice system here? He'd be taken up to Goldthrone for a trial and executed.

Murder carries a pretty heavy penalty around here, so... And if we don't find him? I hope you do, because you might be the only ones that can find that girl. If we don't find him, then we lose Val. In terms of the... What if he never makes it back, is what I'm saying. In terms of the bodies, well,

that's... A lot of things happen in the Ironwield, and the lands around it. In terms of the bodies, Torvin said that he's happy to preserve their bodies and then we'll take them up to Goldthrone there's a Church of Siaska there I know that they were priests of the Star Mother so we'll make sure that they go up and are seen by their kin Torval doesn't he's not comfortable

performing glass rites as they weren't worshipers of Paldor. I mean no disrespect, but the trail is getting colder. We need to go. We need to leave right now. Where would you like to start investigating? So where they initially said he left, I suppose. Yeah, so they were headed towards the southern gate. Can I ask the...

Sorry, the knight that's gone out of my brain. The harvest guard Merrick Merrick, yeah Can I ask him for a lantern? Yeah, yeah, yeah I mean, if you guys don't have things like lanterns He'll lend you his

He asks, obviously, that you return it But yeah, he can lend you a lantern I've got dancing lights Yeah, if you've got your own light sources You can use those I mean, generally, like, all of the buildings have torches So it's not like you're running around in pitch dark But if you want to look for things like footprints Then, yeah yeah you're going to need something like a lantern or dancing lights

or something i will also okay so what's what's your process here are you looking what are you looking for tracks are you looking for like clues how what's the process here are you going to ask witnesses but only thing i'm going to do role play wise okay is kneel next to the bodies and say i'm sorry we failed you we'll make it right and we'll find Balor. You can see that, yeah, their eyes have been closed probably by Rosalina, who was the first one here, and they're just kind of clutched onto each other. Like I said, you can see this trail

where Yusuf obviously crawled over to Corrin's body and then they basically seem like they passed away together. But yeah, you kneel down. There's no response, just cold silence of death. So I hope you're at peace with Sieska in the cradle now, or whatever the belief system is. Yeah, yeah, it's generally, for those, just this is a general thing,

this applies to pretty much, it doesn't matter whether you're a worshipper of whatever god you're a worshipper of, the general kind of afterlife belief for the Erosian church is that those who die are guided beyond the cradle to the afterlife by Siaska's daughter, Kelara, who basically

inherited her mother's responsibilities. And she comes down and she uses a lantern to reveal a secret entrance beyond the cradle and leads the dead spirits into the afterlife, which is a paradise. It's a kind of heaven paradise. Of course, they make Kelara guide you beyond the paradise it's a kind of heaven paradise i'll probably say make kalara guide you beyond the cradle that's kind of a common says is like kalara guide you

and stuff there we go i'll say that have a single tear wipe it with the silk gloves nice and then yeah carry on but try and keeping prim and proper yeah yeah yeah like yeah this is this is different to like when you fought enemies this is you know people that you knew that now have been kind of torn apart. Looking at the bodies... Actually, give me a perception check. I'm going to try and not look at them that much. Okay, all right. I can do it with disadvantage.

Yeah, sure, give me it with disadvantage. Ah, three. Yeah, you're actively not looking at the bodies, so you don't notice anything about the wounds. Yeah. Okay. I think outside of that, Quill is like not timid anymore. Yeah.

You're acting Quill now. He stands up in front of like the crowd of people. Yeah. There's a lot of people who are like murmuring and whispering and... Anyone that saw the person that attacked these people, we have no time to waste. Do not waste my time.

Who saw him and where did he go? Give me an intimidate check with advantage. Nice. 15 plus two, 17. 17. Yeah, there is a murmur and you can see a few people are going to step forward, but seeing this determined look in your eye, they kind of shrink back. The person who steps forward is Reld, the waitress from the thing.

She kind of nervously steps forward, kind of keeping the kind of burned side of her waitress from the thing. She kind of, like, nervously steps forward, kind of keeping the kind of burned side of her face away from the crowd, and she looks up. She's like, I saw him, Mr. Quill. Okay, and it was a seven-foot-tall man. She, like, nods. He ran past the window outside the tavern after Rosalina went out.

He was headed towards the south gate, but I saw him step into the shadow of an alleyway, and he just vanished, like he moved through the shadows somewhere else. He was seven feet tall,

grey skin, tattoos. He had valor over his shoulder. It looked like maybe he had some bruises, like scorch marks on his arms, like he'd been hit by something. Probably defensive. He had a spiked chain, like a long coil of chain with a blade, a really bloody blade at the end of it. I don't... She looks at you.

I don't think he was going to the south gate. I think he was going towards the shadows. It was a weird way that he was going. And the shadows in Rose Hall? What do you mean? Yeah, as in between the buildings, where obviously the moonlight and the torchlight creates these elongated shadows.

He stepped into it and like he dived underwater or something like that he just vanished okay in that case i'll turn around to the guards and say anyone that has a torch into the alleyways and into the shadows you might find him there merrick's like you heard the man and yeah they start pulling out torches and lanterns and they're portray can see, before you gave that order, the Harvest Guard are going around the town in a big group. And you can see that they're all armed. They've all got armor. They've got scythes or pitchforks, blades, hatchets.

There's the big guy with the diabore is sniffing around and using it like a tracking hound. And they're actively pursuing, but you can now see that they pull out light sources and they're checking all the shadowy alleyways and things like that. Okay. What does this mean? What do you mean, what does this mean?

People just don't dive into shadows and disappear. The Court of Shadows. Can I make an arcana check to see if I know the kind of spell? Yeah, you can give me an arcana check. They are called Court of Shadows. They are the ones pursuing in the first place. Was that a natural 20? It's an unnatural 20.

Unnatural 20. You don't think it was necessarily a specific spell. However, given Nova's background, there are individuals reported across Erois from different backgrounds, different races that have been born with unnatural abilities to blend with shadows and to jump through

shadows like a teleportation. They can enter one shadow and then appear in a different shadow 30, 60 feet away. These people tend to be very disturbed. Uh, they're always said to possess a madness,

often turning to violence. Um, it's generally seen as a bit of a sort of magical curse or a disease, but it gives them these supernatural abilities to merge with shadows or travel through shadows. Um, yeah. Um, I might know something I read something once I know Nova reads things

there are individuals and they're born with this ability people see it as a curse because it makes them mad, they can use shadows to teleport to teleport? from how far? I don't know, I've never seen one

they teleport, I don't know how far I don't know. They just, I've never seen one. They teleport. I don't know how far. I don't know how we could track him. If he's using shadows to teleport, he could be anywhere. But he will have left a trace. Wherever he teleported from and to, there must be something we can follow. You can give me an intelligence check if you want, Quill. That's off the table.

Wow, that's low. Very low. Yeah, okay. Don't worry about it. Three. that's off the table wow that's low very low yeah okay don't worry about them three yeah the best we can do

is go to his last spot where um railed saw okay we'll head there we'll see what we can find there yeah

okay so you head on over um and Quill you even in the low light you have no trouble following the tracks Rosehall has muddy ground

it doesn't have like streets it's all just dirt paths and you can see large bloodied footprints You have no trouble following the tracks. Rose Hall has muddy ground. It doesn't have, like, streets. It's all just dirt paths. And you can see large, bloodied footprints follow off into a shadow. Like, they're, you know, diminishing. The blood diminishes as it goes on, but it seems to just stop in the shadows of this, like, top between two houses

and just vanishes. Okay, and if we carry on through to the other side... If you carry on through to the other side, there's no... The alleyway is quite short, and as you come up to the other alleyway, with your passive perception, you notice that the other buildings towards the southern gate are quite well lit.

The nearest big section of shadow is near the north gate. Okay, is there a trail that begins again? So if you move up towards that and like head over to the nearest big section of shadow, you do see a small trail hits another patch of shadow, vanishes again. So you begin this pattern of you're actually kind of like, okay, if he jumps into shadow here, you estimate that his range is about 30 to 40 feet. So you start looking for the next big patch of shadow

between the buildings. And you begin plotting out a vague distance that he was obviously headed in. It leads you to the north gate. And you can see that a few guards are posted there now, but they're generally looking around. And as you get there, yeah, what do you want to do

once you reach this north gate? It's quite late now as well. Yes, it's like... Everywhere is a shadow. It's dark everywhere. Could we use the pig to sniff? If this guy's got blood on him... Well, I mean, we could take the boar with us, I suppose.

The fellow who... The boar is his pet. We'll go with you. Okay. His name is Dale. The fellow has the boar. Is the captain with us, Merrick? I've been trying to all night.

I've been trying to all night. This fellow, whoever he is, his blood's weird. It doesn't have a scent as much. His blood? No, a lot of the blood belongs to the two who died. It must be dripping off of his weapon, but there was some unusual blood,

dark in color. Doesn't seem to have much of a scent, though. Can we use the other blood, then? Well, that just seems to dry up near the North Gate, but I can have a but I can ask Winston to sniff around and see if we can get a track on something. It's better than nothing. We're running out of time.

Do you have anything of the girls, maybe? Anything that she might clothe in or anything like that? She touched my sword. Did we take the daggers back? Yeah, I think I gave the one back, yeah. You didn't really look around the scene, so... I don't think we do, I think I gave the one back, yeah. Ah, you didn't really look around the scene, so... I don't think we do. No, I gave the one back.

No. Either way, this is where he was leaving. This is where the trail leads us to. Let's start a look around here. Y'all can help me, have a look around, see if you can find, especially near the trees, see if there's any snags of cloth or any cuts or anything like that. Can you inform the other guards that if you see a huge purple blast anywhere, that's probably where she is. Will do.

All right. He sends word back. As for him moving through shadows, surely that would use up a lot of his power, so he can't be doing that constantly. I guess. I can do this constantly and I'm going to create dancing lights. It could be a cantrip. I mean, that's the lights.

He's teleporting from one place to the next. There are people with such powers, I don't know, it could be beyond us. Yeah, but I can Eldritch Blast as a cantrip. I can give you Frostbite. I can make Green Flame Blade. I can spare the dying. I can toll the dead. And it's all a cantrip.

He can do it. Either way, this is something he's done after killing two people and kidnapping a already very powerful girl. He must be weak by now. So what's the plan? So you're currently at this north gate. I think, is Merrick with us?

Merrick can be with you if you send word for him. What about Arvel? Arvel, yeah. Arvel, you're kind of in the commotion of seeing the bodies. You didn't really keep track of Arvel. He's dead too. He was alive with you when you last saw him. But you think that he might have still been at the bodies.

Like when you were kind of saying goodbye, you vaguely remember him moving up to them and then you kind of rushed off to try and find Valor. So you don't know. But he's probably back there. Yeah, he's probably back there. Yeah. I think I would be telling Merrick to gather as many men as he can

to send out from the North Gate forwards. All right. That's where you think that they've gone? Well, it's almost definitely where it's gone. It's where the trail has led. If you can send anyone out as wide an arc as possible to find any trail possible. I can try, but we don't have a lot of men here. I've got eight people, and I'll need some of them positioned on the gates in case...

I mean, I'm sorry, I understand that you've lost some friends, but if the wild elves or a monster decides to attack, I need people here still. I'm more than happy to come with you. Dale here and Winston, we can use them to track at least for a ways out of town. I'll have them continue searching, but I just can't

send them too far from Rosehall. I'm sorry. Well, you're probably right anyway. We need to keep people back to keep the people in check as well. There's probably going to be a few questions being asked. This is, maybe this is me being paranoid. Why were you with Brett Brookstones this evening? He invited us for dinner.

All right, okay. He said that because we set up this charity, he wanted to invite us for dinner. All right, okay. Just, I mean, Brett wouldn't, I don't think even Brett Brookstone would do anything for dinner. Alright, okay. Just, uh, I mean, Brett wouldn't, I don't think even Brett Burstown would do anything like this. This is horrific. We've never had something like this ever happen before, but it just seemed a bit

peculiar that he invited you, that's all. The trouble you've had with Brett has been inconsequential compared to this. It's been about money. Yes, this does not seem to be that. Um, they have been pursued before. Yes, this does not seem to be that. They have been pursued before. That makes things...

Then that's a most likely cause, then, if they've got people after them. This is probably the cause of our airship crash and the reason we're here in the first place. Damn. Yes. Alright. Well, you assume that that's what they were after, yeah. You don't know if 100% if if they were after Yusuf and Valor and that.

They just were on the ship and they attacked you and you don't know why. But if Lucius wants to assume that they were after him... Lucius is assuming the Court of Shadows attacked. There's people now jumping through shadows and they killed the people looking for the ones on the ship. That were escorting Valor, basically. So you're saying it's the Remnant? Yes.

Potentially. It's a seven-foot-tall person with a chain. Well, then it's not an attack of madness, like you were saying. Calculated. It's an actual... They want Valor for something. So...

No, I'm not saying it would have been... I'm saying people who were born with this ability are driven mad. Oh, no, I know. I'm just saying. Maybe they're being utilised, too, by this Court of by this court of shadows the remnants sounds perfect for a thug yes controlled maybe okay source of blame we are next one um i was gonna can i like stay on the north gate use my body as kind of like a maybe like um what's the word like a

distraction and just send Echo out and try and have a look around while using my body as like a lure in case. Give me a perception check with advantage for Echo. Cool cool. Using Echo's stats. Oh yeah, where is he? I think he's got like a plus three or four bonus I think.

Open my book of dreams. Echo theme tune. With advantage. That's why I set it high. Not Vitas. 16. What's his perception? 19.

19. Okay. So you send Echo out, and you send him out a far distance along the road, and you can see that the north road follows the Iron Wheel. It follows the forest iron wheel that follows the forest quite a ways about 60 feet from the north gate deep into the iron wheeled you notice that there is uh ropes and what looks like um some um horse feeding bags um probably enough for about

four horses that were stationed nearby. And you can see fresh tracks of those horses leading down the north gate at a pretty rapid pace. And Echo picks up on those, sees those. Okay. I'll send Echo back. Be like, there are horses about 60 feet down the road. What, horses still there? No, they've gone.

They're feeding bags. There's enough there for a group. A group? Yeah. Well, I think we need to get ourselves some horses. I think we might be leaving Rosehall. We need to save Valor. Yes. In that case... Should we ask Arvel to come with us?

Arvel? Arvel! Where's Arvel? I think I saw him with the bodies. I mean, we need to go back and get some horses anyway. Merrick gestures. Unfortunately, in the stables... Yes, we need to make chase, Merrick. There's a stables here.

Unfortunately, it's not under... It's privately owned. I can't just give you the horses, but you can ask the person who runs it if they'll give them to you or lend them to you at least I just need to remember their name it is it's a big town

the tag keeper there is a half elf called Taman he loves his horses but yeah if you go and speak to him, see what he can do. Thank you. It's just, it's not far from here. He just points down away from the north gate. Well, how about some of us go and get Arvel, and some of us get the horses?

Right. Yeah. Fine. He's probably with the bodies. Okay, who's going where? I'll go get Arvel. I've got the money, I'll go for the horses. Horses.

I will go back for Arvel as well. Arvel, so you two horse team. Arvel team, okay. These guys don't want to go back to the bodies, I imagine. You two make your way back to the stables outside the Brazen Heart, and you can see Rosalina is distraught. She's crying on the back step. Reld is kind of with her, and you can see her just sobbing away.

Arvel is with her, and you can see her just sobbing away. Arvel is with her, and you can see that he's kind of just, he's got his little hat that he bought with the Nova and Sentry's money, and his little tunic, and he's got Evangeline locked and loaded. He's got his crossbow bolts. He's got his backpack.

And in his hands, he has Yusef's holy symbol. Aww. Okay. That's fine. hands he has you sets holy symbol okay you see him he puts like a hand on on Rosalina's shoulder kind of like mutters something to her and she just kind of is like waves it and you can see how kind of like half smiling she just waves her hand he just kind of nods and turns around he's like oh oh, there you are. Arvo, are you ready to use that thing?

He kind of gives you a really hard look. Sure am. Then let's go. Let's go. Can I, like, give Rosalina a hug and, like, pat her? Yeah, you kind of lean down, this tiny halfling woman, and she kind of, like, buries her, like, soft face, her big, thick hair.

You can feel it kind of tickling along your faceplate. And yeah, you can see that she's wiping the tears away, and she's just like, I'm so sorry. I thought, I tried to help them, but they had already gone by the time I emerged. And Sayana, oh, to think that this could happen in my stables. And she's, you know, you can see her just kind of like, you know, calming herself down. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. And she's, you know, you can see her just kind of like, you know, calming herself down.

I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. And she just keeps kind of... I apologise. I should have been here. I failed again. I can't believe it. No, no, no.

Nothing you could have done. There's nothing... No one knew that this, such a tragedy would happen. I just, I hope that you find whoever did this. We will. We will try our best.

And Raoul, thank you so much for helping us. I'd like to pat her on the shoulder and be like, you find whoever did this. We will. We will try our best. And, Rell, thank you so much for helping us. I'll pat her on the shoulder and be like, you're a brave girl. She kind of nods and kind of keeps her face aside, and she just nods. There's almost like an emotional deadness. She doesn't seem upset, just a little bit shocked. But Arvel just kind of gives you a nod, turns back to Rosalina. I'll send that money when I get back to Goldthrone. Yeah.

Just gives you a nod. Let's go. Cox. Yeah. A little angry dwarf with his little Stetson behind him. He's basically wearing, he doesn't have any armor. He's got like a leather waistcoat and a cowboy hat and a crossbow and a little backpack and that's it.

Okay, so the stables, when you approach, there is a kind of bewildered-looking half-elf young guy, like maybe 18, 19. And you can see that in the stables there are two horses missing, but there are about six others, all different breeds, different ages. And he's just kind of soothing them, because there's a lot of noise and commotion going on around the town. And he looks over, he's like,

Oh, hi! Hi, we need horses, really fast. Please, five. Five horses. How much? Well, he kind of looks you over, he's like, I've heard about some stuff going on in town. Listen, I mean, do you even know how to ride?

I can learn. I can learn. I read about it in a book once. Please. He kind of gives you an eye. Do you know what happened? I've been hearing a lot about some folks that came to town being killed. They were murdered. They were murdered. I'm sorry to hear that.

We picked up a trail, and the trail leads to other horses. We need horses to catch up with them. They've taken our friend. They've taken a girl. Other horses? Yeah. How many? Four.

Or so. Maybe. Yeah Yeah. How many? Four. Or so. Maybe. Yeah, one of... Alright. Okay. Well, I mean, I can rent you the horses, but I don't like renting them out to people who don't know how to ride. Horses get hurt that way. Can a horse take two people?

Yeah, some of the big ones can. Yeah, sure. the big ones can yeah sure My friends know how to ride I can go with them. Okay. Give me a persuasion check Lucius if you want to help you can if you can you can jump in and say something if you want We really need them Make a persuasion check if you get above a certain DC. I'll give that's one We did murder horses. He looks at you.

He's like, look, I get that you're in a rush and you're upset. I'll rent you the horses, but you got to pay more because if you hurt them, I've got... How much? He looks down, checks his fucking catalog. Where are you going? Where are you taking them? As far as it takes. Well, alright, well then I'll rent them to you

as if you're going to gold throne. You have to leave them at the stables and gold throne, alright? Okay. Alright, well then in that case it's 25 gold a horse. Okay. So if you take four, that's 100 gold. Fine.

Yep, I'll just dig out the money and throw it at him. Alright, I'll pack him up with their own feed. Throw individual coins at him. Money! Alright, it will take me about, I need about ten minutes or so to get him ready. I'll need to get him harnessed up.

I'll pack their bags with some feed. You gotta make sure you rest them and water them and once you get to gold throne, you have to make sure you leave them and water them. And once you get to Goldthrone, you have to make sure you leave them at the stables. I'm literally noting this all down my neck. He also, he's like, what are your names? I'm Nova, Nova Veejer. Yours?

Lucius Viren Elenath. And he begins writing descriptions of you both. All right, I got a record now. If you don't leave these horses at Goldthrone, or if they're injured or they're sick, I'll be sending Harvest Guard to come after you, all right? I promise we will treat them to utmost care. All right, all right, all right, all right.

Okay. I'll get them ready. Thank you very much. I'll leave them where? Are you going out the north gate? Yes. I'll bring them there. Thank you.

All right. Okay. By the time you get back, do you guys want to grab any supplies? Is there anything last minute you want to do before you start heading off? I want to reload my Thunderstone pistol. Okay.

Yep, it's done. Me and Arvel walking down the road. Yeah. Arvel's like looking at you do that. He's like, Quill, give that here. What? You just give it here.

That felt really cool for a second then. He's like, he's like, and you can see with kind of practice skill, he's actually reloading it. And he kind of looks at it, he's like, if we get more time, I'll see if I can find a way to make this

so you can reload it easier. Well, that'd be very useful, actually. Me and Nova can probably figure something out. I'll go buy the brazen heart. Okay. And ask Reld. I'm so sorry. This is really inopportune time.

But it's likely we're not going to come back to this town for a while. Potentially going to Goldthrone. Is there any small foods or rations that we can take? She looks over and Rosalina is just still crying. Waves her hand. Reld is like, all right. No, no, no. Rosalina's like, no, no, no, friend.

No, it's fine. Reld, go get them pecs. Make them pecs. And she heads in and Reld emerges a bit later on. And it's things like, you know, salamis, dried breads, hard cheeses, wrapped up in wax paper. Basically, there's probably enough, I would say,

like, two days worth of rations for four of you. Five of you include Narvel. And yeah, she just gives those to you thank you so much but it's two days each uh any other rations you had by the way are probably gone off by now so just clear your rations you've each got two two days worth of rations okay if do any of so also note who has water skins um okay well't have any. Well, you don't need one, so you're fine. Okay.

So, you get the horses, you all emerge back. Arvel can ride, he knows how to ride, so he'll take Nova. The rest of you, do you do any of you have training in animal handling? I have plus two. Training in animal, do you mean? Yeah, proficiency, sorry.

Oh, I have plus three i don't have proficiency okay so for you guys you're kind of unpracticed riders it makes sense that lucius you've probably never ridden the horse before quill and century you probably have but it's been a long time so i'd normally fly i suppose well i suppose you would have done yeah but i'm guessing you've traveled a bit since you lost the wing oh no you lost the wing and then immediately this has all happened yeah pretty much all right in case, what I need is all of you guys to make animal handling checks. Arvold doesn't need to

because he's trained in riding horses. Fifteen, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. You're on the biggest horse, basically. You and Arvold are on the strongest one. Seventeen. Fifteen. Fifteen? Ten.

Ten. Okay, ten's enough. Ten's enough to basically get it to a thing. The next question I have is you make your way out of the city and you can see the moon is above, the are above and you are just rushing out it's been a long day but kind of fueled on this adrenaline of trying to track down and rescue valor you make your way out freshly fed freshly fed how like are you going to ride these horses

hard and like occasionally just stop to check for tracks and things like that i mean i think i probably would have asked Lucius to constantly have the dancing lights ahead of us and we'd all have lanterns as well so like the entire park you'll just occasionally stop, check for tracks and then just carry on going I guess any time we spot tracks we would then

hard go towards the next place so Quill I'm guessing you're going to be the most adept at spotting the tracks

so with a natural 20 on you've got a passive and passive perception so you're kind of keeping an eye

you ride pretty much for the entire first day like you ride you follow the tracks you get the sense that they are probably a few hours maybe

two three hours ahead of you and they are keeping the same pace like they have gone at a full gallop they are not stopping um so you're about two three hours behind them and you keep pace your horses are all fine keeping you've made checks where you're not stumbling or anything like that you all manage to ride throughout the whole day you have to take brief rest stops so the horses can rest, but otherwise you just carry on going. Yeah. The tracks are pretty easy to follow at this point. Whoever they are are riding so hard and so fast,

they don't have time to cover their tracks. They're just bombing it as fast as they can. Well, I guess they think they also... At the end of the first day, the tracks, the horse tracks stop. They stop at the edge of the first day The tracks The horse tracks stop They stop at the edge of the ironweald And it looks like they let the horses go And they have now moved Into the ironweald forest itself

Cool What do we do? What do we do? We can't abandon these horses No They just seem to have just let them go You take them with us? Station them here?

Is there any sort of like paddock or fencing? No, it's pretty wild Roll a d20 for me Let's see if you get above a 15 Oh, it was so close to an 18 Then it came out to a 4 No So you look around

It's open-hilled grassland If only that was a spin-down dice. Arvel kind of looks... I can take the horses. There's a town not far from here, Ironwick. It's another two days, it's probably a day and a half ride. I can take the horses there. You go into the forest.

Do I know anything about the forest? You can make a... Give me a nature check. Anybody can do this. Super high. 19 plus... Wow. Five. One, so unnatural 20.

Cheers. 18. Okay. 10. Okay, so Novurin and Quill. Yeah, you know a little bit about the Ironweald. It's a forest that has dominated most of southern Suvona, and it's kind of nestled in the shadow of the Auric Mountains.

It's quite hilly, it's quite dense, and it's famous, it's given the name because there are large iron deposits all throughout it in the hills. And a lot of people set up mines or they kind of get resources from it. It is known for being, it has a lot of monsters, a lot of bandits hide in it. There's old ruins. There's tons of places kind of lost and kind of covered up by time. Definitely something where moving through it will be slower going

you'll need to be a bit more careful um you can move at a faster pace but doing so means basically yeah like it just means that you won't be as cautious like you'll have like penalties to like checking where you're going making sure you're not getting lost that sort of thing um but yeah there's monsters and there are bandits and ruins and all sorts of things you can find in it. Notably, one of the things it's most famous for is iron-wheeled spiders, which are spiders that have iron...

They've kind of evolved where the iron has become part of their carapace and their skin, making them very hard to injure. That's fine. Is there no hard route? Because isn't this where the mines were? The mines are closer to Rosehall. You've ridden a day away from Rosehall.

The Ironweald stretches all up the Iron... Basically, the Ironweald goes from Rosehall to Goldthrone, nearly. And comparatively to the Bitterwood, how big is this place? The Bitterwood is huge. You were in a very small part of the Bitterwood. You were in where it's most thin. The Bitterwood stretches

out massively to the east. The Bitterwood took you a day to get through. If you go into the Ironweald now, to get to the river between it and Goldthrone will take you about two days. Ugh, I mean...

But it looks like this is where they've gone. It looks like they've let the horses go and they've they're now using the forest to try and hide their tracks do you know that I read awful awful looks he's like again I mean I was trading I mostly spent my time on the road with guards and wagons that sort of thing that's why I know about Rose Hall and ironwick ironworks a tiny little town on the edge of the lake. Not much there, but... What time is it now? It's morning of the second day.

Okay. Well, I mean, we all saw the spider that Brett showed us. Well, I say showed us, more displayed. I can speak with animals. You can... Maybe I could tell the horses to go back. Yes.

That sounds pretty amazing if you can do it. Will they listen to you? Try it. Do you listen to me? I can speak common. But do you listen to me? Sometimes. We've got no time.

No time. Arthur will dismount. Let me try, I guess. Okay. Are you casting a spell or is this a... Let me... I think it's a spell. Is this try, I guess. Okay. Are you casting a spell or is this a... Let me... I think it's a spell.

It's in my ritual book. Okay. The tome. Okay. Oh, you picked it as one of your ritual spells. So it'll take you ten minutes to cast.

Yeah. Okay. Good to know. In that case, could we make... During those ten minutes, could we have like... Not going super far away,

obviously, but like just a cursory glance around to see what sort of tracks we would be looking for in the future yeah uh yeah i mean you can see that with just your passive perception for now when you get into the iron wheels you're probably going to have to make more active checks yeah but for now you can see that it's boot prints um you can see that they're obviously hacking away to make their travel through the Ironweald easier. There is also, yeah, just like little bits, like broken branches,

something like mushrooms crushed underfoot, like classic ranger-y kind of tracks. How many boot prints? There's four humanoids. Crap. One of whom is large. Times four. So you can speak with animals, Nova. Takes about ten minutes. Yeah, and you kind of look at these horses.

Can I speak? I guess I speak to all of them. Good day. Hello. Hello. Hi. Hello. Thank you for getting us so far and so fast.

You're welcome. Is food? In a second. We have to go into the woods now. Oh, woods scary. Yeah. Would you be okay to go back to the stables? Back home?

Yeah. Do you know the way? You ride? No, on your own. Oh. No way. own. Oh. No way. Yes.

Travel road all the time. Easy road. So you know how... We like it. You know how to get back home. Yes. To the halfling that was looking after you. Taman. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Like Taman. We're looking at Nova and she's just stood there just like talking to these horses. She's talking normally, but these horses are just like looking at her like This is fun. They're kind of moving their mouths like they're chewing, but Nova can hear this voice coming out.

Can you just point yourself in the direction of Rosehall, of home? They turn around and face back there. I think it's working. I think, yeah. And then they turn around and face back there. I think it's working. I think, yeah. It's amazing. And then they turn back and look at you. Are you okay to go home then? Go home?

Yes. Climb aboard? No, no, without us. Without? Yes. Ryder, though. We have to go into the woods. Give me an animal handling check.

Oh, God, no. Please, no. she's just talking you don't benefit the situation somehow using magic but i'm playing lucius or guidance nova we really need the horses to go back so we can take harvard with us i know that's kind of a bardic inspiration. Yeah, just give her a d6. Bam. You impart the importance of the task. Ugggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg Five minus one is a four. It's a five. They like look at you. Okay. Are you sure? I am horse.

Oh, God. Food? Hungry. I don't know. Nova, how's it going? I'm really not convinced. They seem to understand where home is and where their owner is, but I'm not really confident.

I can do it as well. Yeah? Yeah. Okay. You can't speak with animals? I can do it for you. Okay, so you approach these horses. Yeah.

Hello. Hello. Oh my God. Hello. Hello. Oh, my God. Hello. Mary's like, hello. It's like battering its big eyes. Nice to meet you. Yeah, like my friend Noble was saying.

No, not at the moment, no. Okay. Like my friend was saying, we need you to go back to Rose Hall. That would be brilliant. Taman. Yes, yes, yes. Yes, please, yeah. You come? No, no, no.

We need you to go by yourselves. Oh. You mean animal handling check. Yeah. 20 natural. Oh, nice. Oh. Okay.

Home. Yes, please. Yeah, back to Rose Hall. Okay. You sure you can do it? Bye. Bye, Guardian. I'm going to really quickly write a note. Goodbye. Bye. home yes please yeah back to Rosehall okay you sure bye

bye Guardian I'm gonna really quickly write a note goodbye can I write a note and all four of them just start trotting off like slow paced

heading back down the road I guess I don't need to write a note you can run up and like shove it in like their saddlebags just a really quick note like dear Tammin have horses

sorry you couldn't bring them back Nova okay yeah and you just shove it in their cell bags And they just trot back Let's hope they don't get attacked or Oh god! Oh, you mean by the people that are plaguing the North Road?

Arvel is just like Readies the crossbow, slings it over his back It's the best we could do Let's get ready Good job team I didn't know you could do that The mission's not done yet What do you want to do't know you could do that. So you're not done yet What do you want to do you're heading in now? We will head in. Yeah, okay, right those tracks

So I don't want to go into every day that you travel through this wood You need to tell me a couple of things The first one is what travel pace are you going you can go a slow pace? Which will let you move stealthily and it will give you bonuses to spotting dangers or tracks You can move at a normal pace, which you don't have any penalties, but you don't gain any benefits and you can't stealth. Or you can move at a fast pace,

which is obviously the quickest, but you will have penalties to spotting dangers and ambushes. Based on the tracks, they're just hacking away through the wood. It is difficult to tell. I would say, with your passive perception at this point, you think that they are moving at a normal pace. Okay.

I probably don't think that people are after them at this point. If they're going normal, then we go fast. But... You would catch up on them. They have a slight lead on you, but yeah. They could leave traps and whatnot. What do you guys want to do? What's the first decision you've got to make.

Leader, what do we do? Leader. I mean, I want to catch up to them. Then it sounds like you want to go at a fast pace. You're going to set the fast pace. I mean, we've been in the wilderness before. And I was useless. You weren't totally useless.

We got robbed. You did get robbed, but there's no one here to rob us, I don't think. Anyway, unless spiders want your goods. Probably. Nova, we've got to move. If they get away rob us, I don't think. Anyway, unless spiders want your goods. Probably. Nova, we gotta move. If you get away from us, we ain't gonna see that girl again. It'd be all for nothing. I'm just saying I'm very noisy.

Me too. Me too, don't worry. Then even better that we go fast. If we can't be quiet, let's go fast. Maybe we'll catch them unawares that way. Okay, you lead the way, Arvel. Well, Quill? I'll lead the way. With Arvel. How are you in this sort way okay you lead the way arvel well quill i'll lead the way

with arvel how are you in this sort of environment by the way don't worry about me i won't then okay so fast pace fast pace right the next thing is one of you now you can include arvel in this so that one of you doesn't have a role there are four roles a navigator a lookout a vanguard and a rear guard the navigator makes survival checks to make sure you don't get lost then the lookout makes perception checks to spot ambushes and hidden hidden features no way where am i going okay the vanguard makes um it basically clears the path is it responsible for like hacking stuff away clearing the path? Is he responsible for hacking stuff away, clearing the path? The rear guard will basically help determine the overall readiness

of the group. I'm so bad at all of these! I can do either the lookout or the... You can only do one role. Navigator. Or the navigator. I can do either. I'm actually proficient in both of those. Well, tell me who's doing what. Navigator. I am not a survivalist so I think I should be lookout with my perception. I will be looking for traps.

I might as well as go with these. You're navigating. looking for traps. I'm making sure we don't get lost. You're navigating. I'm navigating. All right, so Quill's the navigator. Lucius is the lookout. So you're doing survival checks, right? Yeah. Sentry, do you want to be vanguard?

Yes, please. Can Arvold be the rearguard? Yep. Yeah. And then that leaves you doing nothing. Well, I guess you're free trying not to be left. Okay. I think you're free to assist anyone. Can I maybe write a map or something?

Would you like, who would you like to assist? Lucius. Lucius? Okay. So in that case, can you make, you make a perception check for me,

Nova. Nice. But this is helping his. Potentially. Make a perception check for me. There's a, if you get over a certain DC, you'll give a bonus.

Four. Nothing. You're trying to help, but you don't actually Four. Nothing. You're trying to help, but you don't actually offer anything productive. Look, Nerva! Quill, make a survival check for me, please. Try and, like, actually roll it where it's not going to get cocked.

Fourteen. Fourteen. Lucius, make a perception check for me. I left my coke at the Brookstone Manor. What? You left your what? My coat. You did. Oh, you did.

I was just imitating Tubby on his coat, but unless you kicked him. Oh, no. Perception check, please. Bullshit. The harsh rules of the lowlands. Okay. 17. Okay, Century.

Make an athletics or nature check. It's up to you. Oh, I could have done nature. 17. Okay, Sentry, make an athletics or nature check. It's up to you. Oh, I could have done nature. Well, what? That was one of the options. 11. He didn't do nature. And then Arvo will make an initiative check to determine your overall readiness.

Okay. And everyone has to roll initiative now. What? Wow. Wow. Okay. Is that Owen Wilson? Wow. Wow. So. Wow. initiative now what okay so there are a couple of things the first is as you're

making your way through quill you you manage to keep rough track you're following the tracks you manage to keep the team on a path you don't feel you've

gotten lost Lucius you are keeping a close eye out for any ambushes for any monsters any or any hidden features like anything that might be of interest uh century you're hacking your way through clearing an easy path for the rest of them the only problem is arval seems very distracted like he's so focused that he's actually not keeping an awareness um you get the sense that he's kind of really messed he's kind of upset by what's happened and he's angry uh so let's see what happens oh no it's a d10 sorry i

need to roll a d10 first spiders punch them in fact actually no we'll have uh quill you're leading the group you can roll a d10 for me please tell me if you get a seven or higher. Seven or higher? Yep. Christ. Two. Okay, next. Do it again. Nine. Okay. Okay. So the first, the morning of the travel, you make your way through the Iron Wheel.

These tall, sturdy trees kind of surround you and you find yourself going deeper and deeper into the woods. The hills rise up and the trek becomes quite exhausting you stop have some of your supplies for the day uh fresh water you there are no there's no springs or anything like that whatever water you have you probably have uh enough you've already used one day's worth of rations for the previous day of travel so you currently have one day's worth of rations left. You break out, unless you want to try rationing them. Rationing rations. You can try.

At this point, yes. From this one ration, I think I'd worth noting. It's like using loads of toothpaste and then right at the end you're squeezing it out. The iron will is a quiet wood. There isn't a lot of animals moving around.

The plants are strange. Many of the plants and trees have a silvery metallic hue in their roots or in their plants, their leaves. They're almost brittle like iron flakes as they snap off and crunch underneath. The morning goes by without incident. As you go into the evening, Lucius, you spot, before you are within range of them hearing you,

you spot a camp, a small fire up ahead. There are tents. It looks more permanent than what you would expect from your quarry. But you can see four figures, all with animalistic-like traits. Most of them have staghorns coming out of heads with large, unkempt hair. They wear hides and rough leathers, kind of woodsman clothing. And they're sat around enjoying a meal around a campfire. They have not spotted

any of you yet. Put out the lanterns. I've got to snuff out my dancing lights. Arvel shuts off his lantern. Yeah, this is night time. This is about like seven, eight, nine o'clock.

Put out the lanterns. Done. Yep, it's pitch black. Anybody who does not have dark vision will find it hard to move around. But you can see in the distance this crackling fire just illuminating a slight glow.

If you can't see anything, just grab onto me. I can see. That's almost all of us. Everybody grab me. Nova is, I think, the only one that can't. Oh, and Century, but you can use Echo. But you kind of have to hold onto Echo as you move. Yeah.

I'll grab your arm. I will grab onto the back of Century, who is grabbing onto Echo. Oh, do you not have darkvision? No. Okay. I don't know what I do. Arvel takes you both and is like,

come on, hold on to me. Oh, yeah, he can as well, of course. Okay. And then what? Do you want to try and stealthily approach or are you going to avoid them? You can hear them talking, like with your enhanced hearing and quill. You pick up on this now. They sound like a bunch of woods folk chatting about a hunt

that they've recently performed and you recognize them as beast walkers. These are a strange people that are Telekis, the god of nature, kind of birthed after the Sundering. They are people that have animalistic traits and you can see that these now, they have... The women have very short little kind of deer antlers, whereas the men have these larger stag horns. Their skin is kind of a mottled brown, like a deer's or a stag's hide. Nova. You can see they have long bows, hatchets. Do you know anything about these people? Would they be hostile?

The only beast walkers you've encountered before is you encountered some in Imikzan. They were the baggage thieves. But generally there are people that they're very woodsy. People aren't ever sure how to take them. Some of them can be vicious. Some of them can be quite kind-hearted. They are as fickle as nature and animals themselves.

But I know that they're beast walkers. You know that they're beast walkers, and looking at them, they all appear to have stag and deer traits. So, you know, you kind of like, maybe they'd be defensive, but not necessarily aggressive. They're not like wolves or, you know, bears or anything like that. I don't know. They're beast walkers. We met some. You know, they stole our luggage.

If we approach in a certain way where we don't be hostile. Passive, I would say. Passive. I mean if we're going... Maybe just one of us. Maybe Birdie, because you're a beast of some kind. They're stags and they have staghorns and deer horns. You wouldn't be a threat. They're talking about a hunt. I don't think I should go up there. But they've just finished one, so they don't need any more. I don't want to be someone's quarry. Okay, I can go. Okay.

Passive. I'll be passive, I'll be very passive. Pay them if you have to. I don't look like I belong here, so. All right, good luck, noobshits. We'll be right behind you. They might have seen the others. I'll go.

Good thinking. You're like, awful gives you a genuine genuine like, no, it's good thinking. Does anyone else want to go? Yeah. Lucius, you can do it. Just go. Right. Just making sure.

I'll pay you. Okay, I'm good. Don't pay us. Pay them if you have to. Right. I'm going to step out. So you just step out into the light. Excuse me.

Excuse me. Okay, when you speak, like the two of the men, you can see like one is a young boy, like maybe a teenager. Excuse me, excuse me. Okay, when you speak, like, the two of the men, you can see, like, one is a young boy, like, maybe a teenager, the other's a man. It looks like a family. Now that you kind of step out into the light, it looks like maybe a mother and father, two kids. The man pulls out a longbow. Please don't be alarmed. The boy goes for a hatchet, and you can see the woman beginning to, like, craft, like, green vines around her hand. There's no need for that, I assure you. Who are you? I am Lucius Virion Elevin Ananastor,

and I'm absolutely out of my depth. Give me a persuasion with advantage. Because this is very kind of self-deprecating in a sense. 17. Oh yeah, okay, so the kind of the older man, like. Yeah, you look it, friend. I of the older man, like... Yeah, you look at friend. I'm not alone, just so you know. We are on the chase.

People in the town that we were just at have been murdered, and we feel like the murderer has come through the Ironweald. And we're looking for someone who's been kidnapped. He eyes you up and kind of like nods he's like well bring out the rest of your bring out the rest of your family or crew or whatever you are we have a working title

but yes I'll bring about we have a birdie I come out I mean they're not bothered like they know an Arakoka I just mean this is like you're introducing us to a stage show. We have Birdie. Next up we have Guardian.

It's like, what, for my shield? Yeah, so you've got your shield up, indefensive. When you come out with a weapon, they are a bit more... I'm the same as Lucius. I've got my hand up. And we have an Eganassi Nova. We're not dangerous. An Arvo kind of comes up! And a dwarf Arvo!

He's got his crossbow, and again, there's this kind of tenseness in the air. No one's going to hurt anybody. We just want information. All right. He looks down, he's like, boy, come on. Maybe some water. Put those things down. And some rations.

And he lowers his bow, and you can see the boy kind of hooks the hatchets into his thing. Everybody put their weapons and whatnot down. The woman's, the green vines that she was beginning to create with magic recede, and she kind of looks down, and he's like, Well, all right, if you don't mean any harm, come and join us by the fire, I guess. It's getting late. Oh, thank you very much. You don't want to be...

Lovely. You shouldn't be out in the Ironweald this time of night. People that aren't used to the woods shouldn't be out here. Well, we wouldn't if we... Yeah, your friend mentioned something about you chasing down some murderer or a girl. She was kidnapped. She was one of our group and she was kidnapped. He kind of nods.

He's like, I'm sorry to hear that. Sit down. I'm Gen. This is my wife, Lila. These are our kids. Yeah, sit down. Have you eaten? Do you need food? We have this much food left.

Is that all you have for traveling through the forest? We were in a bit of a rush. Save that. Lila, have we got enough? And she's like, yeah, we can find some more. And you can see that they've got like, maybe like a couple of like chickens or something like that, or like birds that they've kind of killed and they've been roasting.

Gamey birds. They've got like, they've got things like potatoes. Yeah, like they're going to offer you what they have. They've got like vegetables. They've got like nuts. They begin pouring out like these little wooden bowls and kind of passing them around. You know what I've been thinking recently?

How disgusting I taste. They also have leather. They have like a leather water skin that they kind of pass around for you to drink from as well so you don't need to mark off rations for today wow you're so kind so we still have two you have one left you used one on the first day but you don't need to use rations today uh that's a very lucky random role encounter for you guys. Yeah, they gesture around and say, like, yeah, well, listen, you don't look like you're particularly well suited to the area. You're more than welcome to share our fire for a bit.

We must keep pursuing. We don't want to lose them. You'll need to rest at some point. Well, the trail actually came very close to this camp. It was not too far away that we passed here. Did you hear anything? Four people?

I saw something. This is the older fellow. He's like, yeah, I saw something. I was out getting dinner. There was a pretty dangerous-looking fellow with three others carrying, well, I thought it was a sack of something, but it could have been the size of a human girl.

She's only very small. Yeah, it could have been something like that. She's very snacky. He looked dangerous. I just watched them. They didn't cause any trouble, so I just let them go. Was he about seven foot tall, grey-skinned? He was big, yeah.

Looked like a... Had a chain. What do they call them? It's almost definitely the people. Lilo, what do they call them? It's almost definitely the people. Lilo, what do they call them? Goliaths, I think. Yeah, one of those. Oh, a Goliath. I've seen a couple

near the bigger cities and towns, but never one out here. Gustav. There was also two humans with him. An older boy, a girl, and another was also two humans with him. An older, a boy, a girl, and another one. Three humans with him. And did you...

Do they look like the type of people who would come here often? There was a boy and a girl, older, maybe around 18. 18 or so. Maybe around there. They looked pretty practiced. The boy was leading them through the woods, looked like he knew what he was doing. Had a bow, looked like a pretty practiced hunter.

They've recruited them to traverse the Iron Wield. Do you know what direction they went in? I can point you in the direction, yeah, for sure. Did they have any... Listen, he looked bad news. Are you sure? I mean, how important is this girl? Oh Listen, he looked bad news. Are you sure? I mean, how important is this girl? Oh, she's one of us.

Yeah. All right. It's like you'd save a family member. He, like, nods. He's like, all right. Listen, you're going to... If you go out there tonight, something's going to come after you.

I'll take you to a little spot. There's a little grove where me and the family sometimes stay when we're out hunting. You should be safe there. That's very kind of you. Thank you. It's all right. Would you like a gold? He looks at you. He's like, I'm not going to say no.

Here you go. Were they wearing any sort of uniform? I wouldn't say uniform. The boy and the girl were wearing traveler's clothes, like good, rugged, outdoorsy stuff. The other guy with them, I mean, he looked ill-prepared. He had a mining pick and loose tunic, a bit of leather, not much.

Didn't look like he looked more like a miner than a traveler. A miner. We had dinner with a... Yes. The owner of a miner. That's not the NPC smiling, that's Mark smiling. We had dinner with a Yes That's not the NPC smiling That's Mark smiling Yes A man and a woman

Well, boy and a girl really I mean I guess A man and a woman, they looked 18 I suppose that's old enough Were they talking at all as they travelled? No, the boy was keeping them quiet as they moved. Okay.

Like I said, he seemed to be, he knew what he was doing. The Goliath that were... I mean, they were probably not much, I mean,

you might be only like an hour or so behind them. That's, and they would be resting for the night as well, I suppose, if they know their way around. Yeah. I don't know where. Like I said, I can take you somewhere safe, but... Well And they would be resting for the night as well, I suppose If they know their way around I don't know where Like I said, I can take you somewhere safe

Well, that would be We'll take that Good It's no use if we're dead True Alright Dead tired Alright, well, yeah

Eat up your fill And then when you're ready, I'll take you to the grove Your most gracious, thank you It's alright Could we repay you for your kindness anyhow? Yes, we... I mean, yeah. I mean, the gold's a nice courtesy,

but, I mean, anything more, it's hard living out here, so... Any weapons? Sure, if you've got anything spare. I'll hold up the scimitar. He, like, eyes it up, like, yeah, that'd be great. He, like, looks at his kind of rusted hatchet that he's been using, like, takes the scimitar, and it's well made.

I remember where you got this. The chasm? That was it. It was one of the chasms. So yeah, it's a finely made blade. It's a little rusted, but it looks like he's like, yeah, with a whetstone, this will clean up nice. Thank you. Thank you for helping us.

He takes it. He doesn't really ask. We were expecting much worse when we came up here. Well, you're lucky. There's a lot of bad stuff here in the Ironweald. Spirits, beasts, all sorts.

Yeah. There's rumors, tales, shades that wander around. I've seen them a couple of times. Is there anywhere we should avoid?

Yeah, a bunch of places. There's a hollow where a lot of spiders have been residing. Don't go near that. I mean, to be honest, if I take you to the grove, you should encounter it past there.

I mean, the problem is everything moves around here. I don't know what you might encounter next. Everywhere's dangerous. Let's go with that. Yeah. Thank you very much. No, it's nice. A lot of people don't trust Beastwalkers, so I'm glad that you didn't attack us on sight.

We have a lot of problems with humans. Are there more of your kind in this place? In the Iron Wheel? Probably. I don't know them. We keep ourselves to ourselves. Our clan was driven away a long time ago. A lot of our people killed.

So to hear it. It's the way of things down here. All right. Strings off his longbow. He's like, keep close to me. Try and stay as quiet as you can. Come. Quiet. Quiet as possible. I'll do my best. Oh yeah.

Yeah, and he will lead you. He leads you to a small grove where you can rest for the evening and he offers to keep a lookout for you. Excellent. What a nice beast walker. Is that real mossy floor? Yeah, it's very spudgy. Like a double mattress. Yeah. Is that real mossy floor? Yeah, it's very spongy.

It's like a double mattress. Yeah, basically. Yeah. No, there are fallen logs covered in moss. It's very peaceful. I don't have my coat. Pretty cold. It's very cold, in fact.

You don't have blankets or bedrolls and things like that. No, we do not. Struggle to sleep. Arvel has like an old tattered blanket that he got, like wraps himself up in that. No, we do not. Struggle to sleep. Arvel has like an old tattered blanket that he got, like wraps himself up in that. Remind me to pack winter clothing next time. He shrugs and just gives you the blanket. Arvel, I can't take that.

It's tiny. Well, it's either that or nothing, boy. Let's just huddle together for warmth. It says in my survival book at number four. All right. I imagine Quill will be quite warm. I am very feathery. She has a big heat

ray on her arm, though. I don't know. We could all snuggle up to her arm. Start a small campfire with it. You hear a voice from the outside like, don't do that. No? Is it too dry? You'll attract attention.

You start a fire now, you'll bring in all sorts of insects and creatures looking for the warmth. Best you do what the Eganasi said. Get close together, huddle up as best you can, share whatever blankets or cloaks you have. Well, I have one extra blanket in the form of a wing.

Excellent. Arval just kind of sits aside Arvel actually seems pretty tough and doesn't seem bothered by the cold I will huddle

okay you snuggle next to Quill Nova did you get in on this yeah Sensory you're like you're like meh

that next to Arvel yeah I got my big ass scarf as well that I'll kind of try and use so you guys get a long rest and you don't need to make any checks to keep on guard

because you encountered a friendly face. A nice person. Yay. Long rest. Damn. The next day, the second question I pose, what kind of pace are you going to take? Super fast.

Okay. And probably the same arrangement as before. Okay. Yes. All right. So, Quill, survival check, please. I forgot about the penalty. Penalty?

Yeah, because you were moving at a fast pace. I forgot to give you the penalty. Oh. That's fine. So do I have a penalty? Just tell me what you roll. Survival. Let's add it this time.

24. 24. Lucius, perception check. 22. Sentry, athletics or nature? Athletics. Seven. Okay.

And then Arvel. Arvel seems a bit more with it this time and is actually keeping a closer eye on things. However, Sentry... Huh? Do you not want me to help anyone? Oh, you didn't say you were helping anyone, so I just... Wait around. Over! I didn't ask you last time.

These guys said, could you help somebody? And I was like, yeah, you could do that. The only... This time, again, you managed to keep on track, focused on your task, even with moving at a fast pace, you're pretty sure that you're going to be able to catch on these guys pretty quickly. Nice. But you are making a lot of noise. Not nice.

You're keeping a close eye out for dangers. And again, even moving at a fast pace, you're keeping a fairly good awareness. Arval seems to be ready. Century, however, struggles this time. There's a lot, the terrain here gets a lot more hilly, a lot more dangerous. Quite often you have to do things like form basic you know, like clear out dense undergrowth or like the terrain becomes so rocky that you're kind of having to

help everybody over it and it becomes quite tiring. Just something to keep in mind for when things start off. Eventually you Lucius you see up ahead

that you kind of notice something a figure looming in the shadows of the trees you don't see three more but you see a seven foot grey skin being and you just catch a glimpse

of him as he's kind of hiding sort of amongst the trees watching the way that you're coming foot grey skin being and you just catch a glimpse of him as he's kind of hiding sort of amongst the trees watching the way that you're coming hmm my high elven faint heart leaps into my throat stop

stop okay pretend like nothing's happening but I see him. Ha ha ha! Well, we have to go this way then. And I'm pointing like a complete opposite direction. Okay, so you want to head in a different direction.

We're not heading off in a different direction. I'm like, we're acting like he hasn't seen them. We're never going to find them. But don't we? What? Nova's just really confused. We're pretending. I see it. Oh.

Ha ha ha, yes. Let's go that way. Quill? Oh, down to the left. Yes. This way. You lead the way. Ha ha ha.

Ha ha ha. Deception checks. For you and Lucius. Does my performance help? 18. Okay. So like I guess we're now, so if we were walking. You start walking north.

And then you're like this way. And you start angling off to the side. I guess with the intention of cycling. And then you're going to send, do you want him to go quietly? Yes. And then are you using his senses? Yes. Okay, so you need to stop.

You kind of shut your hearing and eyes off. Give me a stealth check for Echo. Stealth check. Okay. Okey dokey. 16. Okay. okie dokie 16 ok you send Echo and he kind of dodges and weaves through the trees

and you can see where Lucius pointed you don't see the figure but you do see a small clearing the stubbed out remnants of a campfire. Remnants? Yeah, remnants of a campfire.

And that's pretty much it. Maybe like a few little loose tracks. Okie dokie. I'll send that. One second. He's going to make one last roll and then he's going to end it on a cliffhanger. There's no cliffs here. Deception check.

All week. Nine. Can you tell me what Echo's AC is, please? Oh, dear. What do you mean? Nine. Twelve. What's Echo's HP? What is Echo's HP?

What is Echo's HP? One. So, as you're focusing through his eye, this one eye you watch as he glooms around, losing track of this figure, Echo stops and glances at the last second as this grey-skinned, tattooed face, red veins crawling up from underneath a loose tunic

kind of built into the skin. Oh no. Grimace. No, no. Spiked blade. No. And you hear it shatter. You take, I believe, a bunch of psychic damage.

You take four psychic damage. Sentry. As this connection between you and Echo is lost No! And it just goes black as you suddenly come That's where we end today's episode Cliffhanger No!

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